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When he first gathered his newly assembled team to write the 1975 premiere episode of Saturday Night Live (then called, NBC’s Saturday Night), creator Lorne Michaels started with a simple credo: Lets make each other laugh, and if we do, well put it on television and maybe other people will find it funny. So many other people ended up finding it funny that SNL grew into a singular cultural phenomenonone that remains on the air, and relevant, 50 years later. Over the course of making high-wire-act TV each week for a half-century, however, Michaels’s ideas about how to wrangle talent gradually evolved far beyond that initial make-each-other-laugh principle. He has such a unique and honed management philosophy, says Susan Morrison, author of the forthcoming biography, Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live. As I was writing it, some days Id feel like, Wow, this could be published by the Harvard Business School. Susan Morrison (right) [Images: courtesy Random House] Morrisons book, out in stores February 18, paints the richest portrait to date of how Michaels created SNL, how SNL created a mythology around Michaels, and how much of that is accurate. It also takes readers deep inside the trenches of a typical week at SNL, stemming from the authors time embedded with the show in 2018, her many conversations with generations of superstar writers and performers molded by it, and in excess of 50 interviews with Michaels himself. What emerges is an ultimately flattering, though non-hagiographic depiction of a leader who inspires a reverence among his acolytes that can border on pathological. (As the book recounts, former cast member Andy Samberg and former writer John Mulaney both separately tried to find out what kind of deodorant Michaels uses so they could use it too.) Though a lot of what makes Lorne Michaels himself is specific to the niche field of televised live-sketch comedy, some of his tactics for managing creative people have much broader applicability. Mix peanut butter and chocolate The sprawling list of all-time comedy legends that Michaels plucked from obscurity and cast on SNL includes Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock. Beyond his keen eye for talent, though, Michaels also has a nuanced sense for talent-configurations. The book describes how the creator put Harvard Lampoon writer Jim Downey in a shared office with Second City improv maestro Bill Murray in 1977an intentional collision of high-brow and blue collar. The two writers brought contrasting ingredients to the table, like peanut butter and chocolate, and Michaels recognized the potency of blending them together. Its something he still does when bringing in new blood each year, even if he no longer assigns office mates. Although Michaels has been accused over the years of not diversifying the staff enoughcast members Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah publicly refused to play any more Black women back in 2013, when SNL hadnt had a Black female in the cast for six yearsthe show these days more closely resembles the diverse makeup of its audience. He’s always thinking about creating a really varied writing staff, Morrison says. Hes definitely on guard against the show being too coastal. He loves it when someone’s from Nebraska or Cincinnati or New Mexico. Give people ownership of their work One of the reasons so many of the shows writers such as Fey and the team of Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider go on to become showrunners after SNL, according to Morrison, is because of the free rein Michaels gives them. Writers dont just conceive and pen sketchesthey also produce and direct them, getting a huge say in everything from set decoration to costumes. All this leeway comes from Michaels’s own experience as a comedy writer on sketch series, such as The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show, in 1968, when he wished he’d had more freedom. Even when Michaels does weigh in on decisions throughout the development of a sketch, as the book describes, he often does so in a way that still keeps the writer in the drivers seat. Being in the room during all those meetings, you could see there’s some jujitsu going on, Morrison says. Hell rarely give a hard note, like, You have to change the ending. Hell just maybe give enough clues so that a writer will make a change but will feel ownership of it. Figure out what people need and be that for them A lot of big personalities and even bigger egos have been part of the SNL team over the years, and theres no one-size-fits-all management strategy Michaels could deploy with them all. Instead, as the book details, Michaels became a student of how creative people respond to various approaches. By supervising hundreds of the kinds of people over the years that former cast member Mark McKinney refers to as broken comedy toys, Michaels learned to act as father figure, CEO, and all points in betweendepending on the person. He manages them sometimes one-on-one, and sort of gives people what he thinks they need, Morrison says. “[Bill] Hader would describe when he came back to host, feeling kind of rigid with anxiety, and Lorne coming in and just barking at him, like, Shut the fuck up, get out there and do it. You know what you’re doing. But then Molly Shannon talked about a completely different approach from Lorne, where hes just kind of warmly reassuring her with his eyes. Its no wonder every year on Fathers Day, Michaels reportedly receives messages from dozens of surrogate sons, including Pete Davidson. The power of “rolling decisions” Any sketch that makes it to air on SNL has survived a comedy gauntlet that claimed countless other victims. The sketch has to get through the initial pitch meeting on Monday; the all-night writing session on Tuesday; the development process Wednesday through Friday, during which many more sketches are fleshed out than could possibly fit into one 60- to 70-minute episode; and finally, it has to make it past dress rehearsal on Saturday night, a few hours before airtime. Lorne (the book) reveals, in exacting depth, just how many decisions are involved within each sketch, beyond the more macro-level decisions of which skeches will actually make it to air and in which order. Michaels keeps every possibility on the bubble for as long as possible, a habit he describes as making rolling decisionsthe opposite of snap decisions. He just likes to keep all his options open, Morrison says. He’s not good at making decisions until he has to, but also I think he feels its really great creative ferment. The competition up to the last minute probably keeps everybody going. I mean, the emotional and creative vibe in that building between Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, it’s like the Hunger Games. Creating a culture of resiliency A good compromise, as the saying goes, is when both sides are unhappy. At SNL, however, just about every writer and cast member is a little unhappy each week. Its something Michaels learned, according to the book, after the very first episode in 1975. Writer Michael ODonoghue was upset that one of his sketches got cut, filmmaker Albert Brooks was annoyed that Michaels chose a different short film of his rather than the one Brooks had intended for the premiere, and future senator Al Franken was disappointed in the corny tone of another sketch. That first episodes equal-opportunity unhappiness set the standard for the decades that followed. But it probably takes a bit of the sting out of each persons disappointment to know that everyone else is also disappointed to some degree. It might also serve as motivation to make next weeks victories outweigh the defeats. And Michaels takes care to celebrate the major victories with his team, so they can be confident that theyre appreciated. I remember Hader telling me that the night he debuted [much-celebrated character] Stefon, one of Lorne’s assistants summoned him over to come and sit next to Lorne at the party after the show, Morrison says. So, you’re in when that happens. The creators status as a legendary gift giver probably also helps demonstrate that appreciation. Working for Lorne Michaels, as described in Morrisons book, seems nearly as agonizing as it does rewarding. If it were easier, though, there would probably be more sketch comedy shows that endure for half a century. Instead, theres only one. Isnt that special?
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Years ago, I asked my born-organized sister how she managed to keep her place looking so nice all the time. She gave me an odd look and replied, I put things away when Im done with them. Im reminded of this infuriating conversation whenever I read most introductory budgeting advice. Money experts will assure their audience that creating a successful budget is simple. Just track your income and spending and make sure the second number is lower than the first, they say, often with a tone that makes it sound like theyre worried about your ability to tie your own shoes. But most people need to know how to do these supposedly simple things. And just as my sister couldnt imagine why put things away was impossible-to-follow advice for me, financial experts dont necessarily recognize that the simple process of budgeting is not easy for everyone. If money management is not second nature to you, here are some tips to help you create and maintain a budget that fits your life. Treat budgeting like laundry About once a year or so, Ill find myself elbow deep in unfolded clothes, wondering aloud if Im nearly finished doing the laundry. After 30 plus years, I must be near the end of the laundry by now! Ill lament to my family. My frustration stems from the fact that washing the clothes is a never-ending task. I can never be done with the laundry. I can only choose from one of four options for dealing with the laundry cycle: do it myself, pay someone else to do it, wear dirty clothes, or go naked. Money management is also a never-ending task. In fact, budgeting often fails because the budgeter doesn’t get past the initial check-in with their money. We want budgeting to be a once-and-done kind of chore and forget that it needs to be done over and over again. If you havent embraced the ongoing nature of budgeting, you probably only budget sporadically. This might involve sitting down with your banking app to check on your spending and may even include a plan for how much you intend to spend in the future. And then the budget is often forgotten about until the next time you’re scrambling to pay your bills. The problem with treating budgeting like a singular event is that youre doing the financial equivalent of washing your skivvies only once a year. Youre going to run out of money/clean undies eventuallyand no one likes their options when that happens. Its far better to go into budgeting with the assumption that youll need to spend a little time on it weekly, just as its better to tackle the laundry regularly instead of only summiting Mount St. Washy when youve had to go commando several days in a row. How to do this Accepting that budgeting is a regular chore is almost half the battle, but that doesnt make it any easier to carve out time for a new weekly task. This is why newbie budgeters may want to literally pair laundry with money management. The time your unmentionables spend spinning in the washer and dryer is down time on laundry day, which could be an excellent time to work on managing your money. This will help you build the habit and connect the importance of budgeting with that of laundry. Avoid judging yourself Once you have embraced the repetitive nature of money management, the next major obstacle is self-judgment. There are a couple of forms this kind of judgment could take. Some budgeters beat themselves up for past financial choices theyre still paying for, concluding that they will never be good with money. Others compare their income or lifestyle to someone else who seems to be doing better. And many budgeters set themselves up to fail by deciding that their future selves are perfectly capable of quitting expensive habits cold turkey. Each of these kinds of self-judgments can derail a budget. When you judge yourself and your finances in any of these ways, youre measuring reality against what should be true. Unfortunately, reality wins every time, and shoulding on yourself just makes you feel bad. This is why budgeting needs to be done in a place free of judgment. Your money situation is neither good nor bad; neither moral nor immoral. It just is, and accepting that allows you to make the most beneficial decisions for your goals. How to do this Telling you not to judge yourself is a bit like my sisters advice to put my stuff awayvery easy to say and much harder to do. Thats why new budgeters should spend their first few budgeting sessions simply gathering information about their money. You dont need to make any decisions about any of the numbers you uncover. Think of yourself like an accounting version of Indiana Jones, excavating the historical record without judgment. This specifically means using your first few weeks of budgeting on uncovering the answers to the following questions: How much income can I expect each month? What are my monthly fixed expenses? These might include: Rent/Mortgage Utilities, including mobile phone and data/Wi-Fi access (if these fluctuate, calculate the monthly average over the last 12 months) Car payment Auto insurance Student loan payment Alimony or child support Day care expenses Monthly memberships (such as gym membership) What is the monthly average cost of my variable expenses? Use at least three months worth of numbers for the following expenses to calculate your average monthly cost: Groceries Medications Medical appointments Renters insurance/Homeowners insurance Car maintenance and repair Home maintenance and repair Credit card payments What is the monthly average cost of my discretionary expenses? These might include: Entertainment Dining out Personal care (haircuts, etc) Clothing Hobbies Gifts The numbers you calculate from this exercise are just information. Gathering this data without making judgments or decisions will allow you to get comfortable with the idea of removing your ego from the process of budgeting. Aim for small wins Back when I asked my sister about her organizational skills, I was thinking about the pile of papers on my kitchen table, the clothing chair in my bedroom, the dishes that had taken up permanent residence on my coffee table, and unfinished projects on multiple flat surfaces in my house. In othe words, I was thinking globally about my untidiness. Her advice assumed that I had a place to put everything away and that it was something I could do quickly. Neither of those things were true. It wasnt until I decided to make my bed every day that I started to move the disorganization needle. It did nothing for the piled papers, clothes, dishes, and unfinished projects elsewhere in the house, but having a neatly made bed was a small, easy thing I could do that helped make my space seem neater. Once that was a habit, it was easier to put things away in my bedroom. New budgeters should aim for similar small wins with money management, since it is much easier to build a habit from small routines than try to become a money maven overnight. How to do this There are a number of small financial wins that can help you build the budgeting habit. Some early skills to focus on might include: Paying all your bills on time Transferring a small amount to an emergency fund with every paycheck Paying more than the minimum amount on credit cards or other debt Taking lunch to work one day a week Picking one of these skills and repeating it until it has become a habit will help you create a foundation for your budgeting practice. Even though these are small actions, repetition and habit will allow them to improve your finances and give you successes to build on. The perfectly imperfect budget Just as my house will never look like something out of a magazine (or even like my sisters house), your budget will never have the picture-perfect symmetry described by money experts. But your budget doesnt need to be pretty or perfectit just needs to make your financial life easier to manage. To create your own successful budget, start by treating money management more like your laundry. Its something you have to do regularly or else it will back up on you. When you get started on a new budgeting habit, commit to simply gathering information without judgment. Youll make better decisions if you remove your judgmental reaction from the numbers you uncover. Finally, aim for small financial wins, rather than trying to completely remake your finances all at once. Letting go of the idea of perfection will help you learn to love your budget, warts and al
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Getting a preschool-age child, let alone dozens of them, to wash their hands can be an exhausting chore. At Family Connections preschool in the Portola neighborhood of San Francisco, that used to be a constant challenge and frustration for educators. Without an outdoor sink, students outdoor activities were interrupted anytime a hand got dirty, as the whole group had to take a trip back inside, says executive director Yensing Sihapanya, noting how that would eat up precious minutes that could have been spent playing and learning.But in 2021, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a community development financial institution (CDFI), poured grant money into San Francisco early learning centers to make needed repairs and upgrades. At Family Connections, which received $183,000 total, that meant swapping out old Ikea cabinets for better wood furniture, knocking a hole in the wall for more outdoor access, spending $17,000 for indoor lights that didnt flicker and interrupt circle time, and $23,000 for the outdoor sink, which was finally installed this past January. These may not seem like significant additions, but for a childcare industry starving for funds to improve physical spaces and design, they are a godsend. Any tuition or any government fees that we’re getting for childcare pays for teachers, supplies, and snacks, says Sihapanya, whose school focuses on providing access to low-income students. We dont budget for repairs in our funding sources and tuition. Childcare challenges The American childcare industry faces numerous hurdles, including labor shortages, insufficient public funding, strict regulations, and challenging economics. There are a handful of states, like Michigan, instituting new support programs and subsidies to help providers. But overall, U.S. childcare remains exceptionally unaffordable, according to Elliot Haspel, a senior fellow at Capita, a family policy think tank. Costs have risen beyond the consumer price index, and daycares face a high degree of staff turnover owing to low resources and poor pay. Adding to those headwinds, the industry struggles to fund better design and physical spaces. Estimates suggest the shortfall in infrastructure for early childhood education runs into the billions of dollars, but no true national figure exists. The National Children’s Facilities Network has called for a nationwide assessment to determine the extent of the shortfall. The sectors funding dilemma often gets presented as a zero-sum choice between increased access, in the form of more facilities and cheaper tuition, or physical investment, Haspel says. When the nation lacks affordable access, better design and more capital spending for existing locations can be framed as luxuries. One of the main federal methods of childcare funding, a Child Care Development Block Grant, can be applied only to minor repairs and renovations. But childcare advocates, operators, and designers say beautiful facilities can go a long way toward enriching early childhood education. Good, functional design directly impacts and improves play, learning, and the health of participants. Childcare facilities, where children can spend a majority of their waking hours, can function as the third teacher. [Photo: KinderCare] Small elements and design choiceswindows set at childrens height, improved outdoor access, shared kitchen facilities that make childcare rooms more efficient, changing tables with stairs that help caregivers save themselves the stress of lifting older childrencan make big differences in operations and learning. The space that kids learn in is so important and they’re so rough, because they should be able to play in the space, says Sihapanya. But the model of childcare funding we have just doesnt consider repairs or renovations. Thats why LIIF focuses so much on infrastructure and design investments, says Angie Garling, one of the community development financial institutions senior vice presidents. After investing nearly $500 million over the past 25 years in early childhood education, impacting more than 400,000 kids at 6,000-plus facilities, LIIF firmly believes these spaces, where so much crucial brain development takes place, need to be healthy, climate resilient, engaging, and enriching. [Photo: KinderCare] The constraints of building for children Childcare facilities are naturally costly to establish and operate, with strict codes around safety, such as how cribs are placed and how much outdoor space is required per child. Outfitting new buildings, or converted homes, for children necessitates substantial capital investment, says Susan Gilmore, founder, president, and CEO of the nonprofit North Bay Childrens Center. Budgets and margins are thin in this sector, and the ability to take on construction debt remains very challenging, especially with many limits on how federal and state dollars can be spent. Just look to the plumbing in these facilities. Theres a surprising amount of complexity in the plumbing design, including the need to install sufficient numbers of small sinks and toilets. If you think about designing a high school, the rooms that often cost the most are the ones that need more plumbing, like a chemistry lab, Garling says. magine every single one of these rooms is a chemistry lab. Crme de la Crme School [Photo: KinderCare] Even the big, private childcare companies need to reckon with these challenges. KinderCare recently opened a new version of its upscale Crme de la Crme School in the I’On neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which features a central park atrium space and themed play spaces, including a solar system room. Architect Kathleen Justice, who designed the new facility and is working on several others, said the challenge often remains more about budget and space constraints than regulation; how much can be spent to build a space thats not wholly utilitarian? Crme de la Crme School [Photo: KinderCare] Unlike elementary education, where theres a national consensus around the imperative to invest, early childcare funding tends to be disparate and fractured, says Kirby Burkholder, president of IFF, another CDFI that works in the childcare space. Its a representation of our nations fractured views around personal responsibility for early childhood care. That insecurity and underfunding means significant capital debt and deferred maintenance issues across the industry. Licensing and evaluation of these facilities can be episodic, says Burkholder, so patchwork fixesin the worst cases, painting over mold, placing a rug over asbestos tileget grandfathered in and accepted. While K-12 schools have been the focus of extensive investment in air filters and better facilities via pandemic-era funding efforts such as the American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, the same federal support hasnt trickled down to early childhood education. Thats despite the fact that childcare and daycare have similar maintenance backlogs as well as changing best practices. New facilities tend to favor more nature-based materials and outdoor play spaces, expensive investments for aging buildings. LIIF grant requests often focus on everyday items: repairing fences for the playground, adding outdoor shade structures, upgrading HVAC systems, or repairing or swapping out old sinks, toilets, and stoves. [Photo: Family Connections] Early education also faces new infrastructure challenges from climate change. Outdoor play spaces, in some cases just a playground and blacktop, need to become resilient, with additional shade structures and water stations. Garling says shes continually advocating for early education to get included in these larger climate-focused investments, since its often left out, and no existing dedicated funding stream exists. Even small accidents can lead to big financial strain on providers; a broken window can cost $10,000 to repair, says Sihapanya, depleting capital reserves or becoming the domino that pushes deferred maintenance back years. Investing in facilities ripples out in other ways, she says. Staff, who can benefit from more outdoor time or even an improved teachers lounge, are happier at work, making the upgrade a potent retention and recruitment tool. Chantilly, Virginia [Rendering: Local Studio] The way forward Directing more funds to fix our literally broken childcare spaces remains difficult, but advocates see some ways to tweak existing programs. Burkholder says that IFFs funding of the $59 million Caring for MI Future: Facilities Improvement Fund grants has helped 1,100 programs and shown the insatiable demand for long-term facilities planning. Gilmore believes that on a policy level the nation needs more infrastructure investments and should give childcare operators the ability to use contract and operational dollars for debt retirement to make these facilities come to fruition. Others have tried utilizing empty elementary classrooms to operate preschool programs. Piggybacking on an existing schools maintenance budget and creating so-called microsites can save costs, perhaps freeing up money that can go toward creating the kinds of spaces our kids deserve. We love our teachers so much, and we love books, and we love all those things, Sihapanya says. But the space that the kids are in every day is as impactful as the books and the teachers.
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